Shopping carts are often equipped with child carriers, providing a large chamber for carrying groceries or the like, and a seat for carrying a small child. The most common of these types of shopping carts have a trapezoidal shaped basket secured to a frame with casters on the bottom. These types of carts typically have a basket back that is hinged, such that similar designed carts may be stacked within each other by pushing a rear cart into the back of a front cart. The child carrier for these types of carts usually have a secondary back wall which moves forward and rests in the forward position, forming a V-shaped rear wall. A seat platform is positioned between the diverging rear walls, near the top of the shopping basket. This common prior art assembly, therefore, provides a collapsible child seat which, when opened for use, is contained within the shopping basket chamber.
The primary problem with the prior art is that it does not provide for the safe transport of children. More specifically, the cart and child seat assembly described above is positioned with a high center of gravity. This results in a child carrier that is very unstable, especially when the basket of the cart is empty and the cart is more likely to tip over due to the high position of a child in the child seat. Another primary problem inherent with the design described above is that the child seat is located within the basket of the shopping cart. This results in less basket area available for carrying goods, and the possibility for the child to reach into the basket and damage or remove goods.
Another prior art shopping cart and child carrier design is similar to the cart design shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,456. This shopping cart design includes a basket chamber which may be lifted upward to permit stacking of similar carts, with a baby basket located outside and behind the basket. This type of shopping cart and baby basket construction, however, is very unstable because the cart basket has a center of gravity which is too high and which, even though made relatively shallow, has a likelihood of tipping over when goods are placed in the basket. Further, this type of cart assembly does not provide a child carrier that is collapsible. Also, although this design of prior art shopping cart assembly permits stacking of similar carts, such stacking of carts is difficult because the front of each cart must first be lifted upward. Therefore, although this type of cart provides a baby basket which is outside the basket and is positioned at least slightly below the basket, the basket is positioned with a dangerously high center of gravity, the child carrier is not collapsible, and the carts are difficult to stack together.
In sum, the prior art shopping carts are not well suited for providing a stable cart with a child seat in a convenient and safe location. The prior art shopping carts either have the child seat or the basket with a center of gravity which is too high to provide stability. The prior art shopping carts with lower baskets and easy stacking features have child carriers which jeopardies stability of the cart, and which consume valuable space within the baskets. On the other hand, the prior art shopping carts which have a lower child carrier positioned outside the main basket are unstable due to the basket being too high, and require lifting the basket up before stacking carts together.
Yet another problem with the prior art shopping carts and child carriers is the lack of safety features associated with the child carrier, such as shoulder or chest harnesses, primarily because the child carrier of the prior art shopping carts are poorly positioned relative to the main basket. An over-the-shoulder strap, or otherwise described as a chest harness, if used on the prior art shopping carts, would be obstructive. In the case of the first type of cart described above, a harness assembly would get in the way of the stacking of carts, and would likely obstruct the placement of the secondary back wall in the non-use position. Indeed, when these types of carts are fitted with a waist strap, the clip mechanism of the waist strap is often damaged and unusable. With regard to the other types of prior art shopping carts described above, a harness assembly would obstruct the stacking of carts together, primarily because the bar supporting the basket of a rear cart would be blocked from interfitting with the front cart.
Injury to children due to the instability of shopping carts and poor designs for the placement of child carriers on shopping carts is prevalent. Because of the problems discussed above with regard to prior art shopping carts, and the unreasonable risk to children caused by those prior art shopping cart designs, there is a need for a shopping cart having a stable construction and low center of gravity, with a child carrier that does not compromise the safe positioning of the child or the use of a shoulder or chest harness. The present invention addresses those needs, providing a safe design of a shopping cart and child carrier, maintaining easy stacking of carts together, and providing a lowered center of gravity and improved wheel-base stability for both the basket and the child carrier.